Holden, Randall top Pa. teams

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Marsell Holden of Farrell was named player of the year in Class AAA and Kennedy Catholic’s Kyle Randall was named player of the year in Class A on The Associated Press Pennsylvania all-state basketball teams.

The 5-foot-10 Holden averaged 27.5 points for Farrell, a Class A-sized school that elects to play up in Class AAA, where the Steelers reached the state quarterfinals. Holden broke the school’s career scoring record during the state playoffs.

Holden is joined on the Triple-A first team by D.J. Irving of state champion Archbishop Carroll, Denzel Yard of Franklin Learning Center, Tony Chennault of Neumann-Goretti, Marcus Brown of Engineering & Science and Calvin Newell of Strath Haven. Newell averaged 29 points per game.

Randall averaged 25 points for Class A finalist Kennedy Catholic, which was beaten by John Johnson-led Girard College for the state championship.

Johnson, a sophomore who has made the all-state team twice, averaged 21.3 points and already is a 1,000-point career scorer.

Also making the single-A first team were Sewickley Academy junior Tom Droney (22.2 points), Serra’s T.J. Heatherington (23.5 points), Jose Ortiz (21.3 points) of Math, Civics and Science and LaRon Byrd (28.0 points) of Girard Academic Music Program.

Tyrone Morris of Girard College is the Class A coach of the year.

Dalton Pepper of Pennsbury, who finished out his four-year career by being chosen as the Class AAAA player of the year, and Villanova-bound Maalik Wayns of Philadelphia Roman Catholic, lead Class AAAA team.

The 6-foot-5 Pepper, a West Virginia recruit, made the all-state team for a third time after averaging 24.4 points on the fourth consecutive Pennsbury team to reach the PIAA playoffs. Until Pepper arrived, the school had made only four previous appearances in its history.

Wayns, a 6-1 point guard, missed nine games with a torn meniscus in his right knee, yet averaged 17.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 3.4 steals this season to complete a career in which he scored 1,151 points.

State champion teammates Sam Prescott and Parrish Grant of Imhotep Charter both made the Class AA first team.

Imhotep, which also won close game after close game en route to one of the four PIAA titles won by Eastern schools, landed three players on the all-state team, including Prescott, the player of the year, point guard Grant and third-teamer Will Adams.